AN AIRLINE pilot sacked for allowing Premiership footballer Robbie Savage on to his flight deck was a “larger than life character” with a chequered disciplinary record, a tribunal heard.

Pablo Mason, from Leamington, was on a final written warning for two previous security incidents when he let ex-Blues star Savage sit beside him during the three-hour journey home because the footballer was nervous about flying.

Capt Mason, aged 58, who flew for the RAF during the Gulf War, was subsequently dismissed and has taken his employers, Thomas Cook Airlines, to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal.

The airline’s former chief pilot, Martin Mahoney, told the tribunal at Birmingham’s Phoenix House how he had never met Capt Mason but knew of him.

“He was a larger than life character who tended to enjoy centre stage and excelled in the public relations side of the business,” Mr Mahoney said. “He received more commendations from members of the public than anyone else.”

But Mr Mahoney said the captain’s “eccentric behaviour and lack of professionalism” led to him being the subject of disciplinary hearings.

The most recent of these was in 2007 when Capt Mason allowed Savage on to the flight deck for the journey home from Finland where the footballer had been playing for Blackburn Rovers in a Uefa Cup match.